Gay sex: Singapore top court tackles challenge to colonial ban

Andrea Tan

Lawyers for Kenneth Chee and Gary Lim argued that the ban, first adopted under British colonial rule in 1938, discriminated against gay men and violated rights to equal protection guaranteed by Singapore's constitution. A two-day hearing before a three-judge panel began on Monday.

Singapore lawmakers agreed in 2007 to keep the law, known as Section 377A, when they repealed related provisions that made heterosexual oral and anal sex a crime. The government says it has not actively enforced the ban since the mid-1990s.

"The majority of the population still favours the current legal framework," Law Minister K. Shanmugam said last month when asked about the case and its background. While society is evolving and social mores are changing, "the government has taken the position that this is a situation where it is best to agree to disagree".

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Police issued an advisory asking attendees at this year's annual gay-pride rally Pink Dot on June 28 to "keep the peace" and avoid comments on race and religion. The warning followed Muslim and Christian groups calling on their followers to wear white on the day to signify "purity" and to oppose the event.

Gay activists started an online petition early last year for abolition before a lower court hearing on the law's constitutionality, and a group of pastors met Mr Shanmugam to present their views on defending the nation's "moral future".

Battles over gay rights have gained prominence in the past two years. India overturned a 2009 verdict in December legalising consensual gay sex. Russia enacted anti-gay laws, stoking international ire, and New Zealand became the first Asia-Pacific nation to legalise gay marriages.

Singapore Judges Andrew Phang, Belinda Ang and Woo Bih Li will hear the arguments on behalf of Mr Chee, 38, and Mr Lim, 46, as well as a parallel appeal by another man, Tan Eng Hong, against the ban on acts of "gross indecency" between males. Offenders face mandatory jail terms of as long as two years.

There were a total of 185 people convicted under section 377A over a 10-year period from 1997 to 2006, according to figures from the Home Affairs Ministry.

In the early 1990s, undercover police arrested several men in sting operations, charging them with molestation and public solicitation, according to reports in The Straits Times. A magazine with advertisements targeting homosexuals had its publishing license suspended and some theatre plays deemed as promoting homosexual lifestyles were censored.